Industrialized nations announced Thursday, February 1, they would retain all 15 countries on their blacklist of suspected money launderers, despite noting some improvements. The 15 jurisdictions had been designated as being "non-cooperative" in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) anti-money laundering campaign.

Since October last year some of the suspects had taken "impressive strides," said a statement the Paris-based OECD's financial action task force on money laundering (FATF) after a two-day meeting here. "Nevertheless, the FATF is not yet satisfied that any country on the list has both enacted and implemented all necessary reforms. Therefore, no jurisdiction has been removed from the list."